


harry potter and infinite at hogwarts

by beccabarnes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Gen, Gryffindor!Woohyun, Hoya/Sungjong (background), M/M, Slytherin!Sunggyu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 07:59:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6146959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccabarnes/pseuds/beccabarnes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Woohyun is convinced Hogwarts only became dramatic once Harry Potter started school. He misses his exams (twice) thanks to their new celebrity. But he can also thank Harry Potter for him meeting Kim Sunggyu. Or. That Hogwarts!AU that someone asked for.</p>
<p>(For someone that famous, Harry Potter actually barely features/doesn't show up at all.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	harry potter and infinite at hogwarts

**Author's Note:**

> This fic assumes familiarity with the HP universe, particularly the Chamber of Secrets. Everything is canon to the HP series and any quotes from Rowling’s HP characters are verbatim from the books. Basically, I just stuck Infinite into Hogwarts.

Harry Potter was at it again. Woohyun silently seethed – this was almost physically painful. Yes, he was very grateful to the boy-who-lived for ridding the world of evil and all that but it was the most frustrating thing to be studying for exams while the entire school was wrapped up in end-of-year celebrations that were infinitely more boisterous because Harry Potter and his friends had managed to beat out Slytherin for the house cup for the first time in years. Technically, he was supposed to be done already but Woohyun had missed his final transfiguration exam due to being in the hospital thanks to – surprise, surprise: Harry Potter. The Quidditch game had been a disaster without Potter playing and towards the end, everything had gone so crazy and lasted so long that the part of the stands Woohyun and several other Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs near him were standing in had collapsed and they’d been out of commission for exams. Their make-ups were happening the following morning but who could get any studying done with the racket and cheers for Harry-fucking-Potter. 

(Woohyun swore he usually wasn’t this bitter but it was particularly galling to know that he needed to study while Sungyeol and everyone in his house were having a merry time celebrating the end of the year.)

When Fred and George Weasley started hopping on tables in their common rooms with megaphones manufactured from marked Charms essays, Woohyun growled angrily, slammed his books shut, and marched out of the common room. He had always been grateful that he’d been a year too young to share with Percy Weasley and a year too old to need to dorm with the twins, but what did that matter when they were always in the common room anyway? It was past curfew but he honestly just needed to _study_ – transfiguration was hard enough without having to take it late when everyone else was having fun and having the Weasley shouts still ringing in his ears did not help. Hopefully the professors would be too busy breaking up all the partying likely going on to be concerned with patrolling empty classrooms.

Woohyun tried the first empty classroom he came upon, found it unlocked, and pulled a couple desks together to spread his transfiguration notes out. He was just starting to get into his groove and was finally starting to feel like he might actually get something done tonight when the door opened and Woohyun felt his heart sinking. He really didn’t want to get kicked out now.

To his surprise, it wasn’t a professor. It was a student, probably around his year, maybe a little older, that Woohyun didn’t particularly remember seeing around. The intruder had a Slytherin token on his bag though, so that made sense – the Gryffindors and Slytherins did not get along as a matter of principle. Some of the more arrogant underclassmen might think they invented this rivalry, but they were wrong – it’d been going on for as long as Woohyun could remember. The appropriate response, which Woohyun now delivered, was a scowl.

The Slytherin did not scowl back. Instead, he placed his bag down in a cluster of desks on the other side of the room and announced, “I’m going to study here; all the rooms I tried in the other corridor were locked. You can stay if you’re quiet. I won’t turn you in and I expect the same courtesy. You can leave if you want.”

Woohyun’s eyebrows just about disappeared at this audacity. Spluttering slightly, he demanded, “What? I can leave if I _want_?” This was ridiculous. And that tone, it was infuriating. “I was here first,” Woohyun pointed out angrily.

“I know. I won’t disrupt you; I’m just going to study. If it bothers you, you can leave.”

And he had missed the point entirely! Woohyun glared at the intruder but he’d already dropped his gaze and was unpacking his textbooks and parchment. Woohyun watched for a couple of minutes, tense and waiting for the Slytherin to curse him or something but it really did seem like he was there to study. Hesitantly, he dropped his gaze back to his notes.

Damn. Now he was way too distracted. He probably shouldn’t have encouraged conversation but Woohyun never really knew when to stop, “What are you studying for anyway? Exams are over.”

The Slytherin raised his eyebrows and pointedly looked at Woohyun’s own desk. “Same reason you are I assume,” he said dryly, “Dumb Quidditch game knocked me out. I’ve got N.E.W.T.s next year; this is a real fucking pain. Thank god I’ve only got a year left – Malfoy’s a little shit but I have to agree with him that Potter’s nothing but trouble. First that whole thing with the troll, and then losing you guys 150 points – not that I’m complaining about _that_ – and then he can’t even stay conscious to finish out the Quidditch season landing us in this mess. 

So he was a sixth year. Woohyun nodded thoughtfully, a little taken aback at the comments about the first year students. It wasn’t really a surprise that he didn’t like Harry Potter; very few of the Slytherins did. It _was_ a surprise to hear a Slytherin openly badmouth Malfoy though – from what Woohyun understood, his father had a lot of influence.

There was quiet except for the scratching of Sunggyu’s quill for another couple of minutes. Then… “Wait, what? You’re a Slytherin. The Quidditch game took out the section between the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.”

The other student’s face suddenly turned beet red and Woohyun grinned. This, he could handle. “Got a secret? What were you doing?” His face turned hard. “Were you trying to curse the Gryffindors?”

He actually spluttered. “No! I don’t give a shit about you guys.”

Woohyun grinned again. “You’re hiding something then. Something embarrassing. What, got a Hufflepuff friend and your house would disown you if they knew?”

There was a muttered something about “has no right” and “cannot believe” in response.

Woohyun practically sang, “Can’t hear you, speak louder.”

“Shut up, Woohyun.”

This time it was Woohyun’s turn to splutter. “How do you know my name? I’ve literally never met you.”

“I’m Sunggyu.” Sunggyu turned deliberately back from his books and, re-establishing his cool, said, “And how could I not know your name, you and that giraffe are literally the loudest, most obnoxious students at Hogwarts.” 

There was a long pause as Woohyun processed this before he pointed out, “You don’t know his name. And I think Fred and George Weasley are a lot worse.”

“Sungyeol. And they’re too far from my year; I don’t really see them.”

That made sense, Woohyun supposed and there wasn’t much to say to that so they both turned back to their studying and for the next hour and a half, it was silent and productive.

Woohyun was wrapping up reviewing his final couple of pages when he heard Sunggyu begin to roll up his parchment. “You done?”

Sunggyu nodded, “Yup. Done as much as I could – we’ll see how it goes in a couple hours.”

“Give me a second, I’m almost done too.” Woohyun received a strange look for this statement. It _was_ a little bit strange – it wasn’t like they were going in the same direction anyway but Woohyun was tired, it was almost dawn, and quite frankly, he didn’t want to be alone for any longer than he had to be. To his surprise, Sunggyu finished packing up and actually sat down to wait.

“Done! Thanks. Let me just clear this up and we can go. Fucking Harry Potter; can’t believe I had to spend all night here instead of partying with my housemates.” As Woohyun was capping his inkbottle, a sudden suspicious thought crossed his mind with the thought of Harry and the Quidditch Game. “Wait a minute. You never told me how you ended up getting knocked out by the match.” His jaw dropped. “Oh my god. You were distracting me. You Slytherins are serious cheats, you know that?”

Sunggyu had the audacity to laugh. “Hardly cheating if your memory is shit.”

Woohyun opened his mouth to argue and then paused. “Nope. Not going to work. I’m not getting distracted again. Why were you even in our part of the stands?”

“I don’t see how it’s any of your business.” Sunggyu’s voice was almost … _prim_. Woohyun had to choke back a laugh.

“It became my business when you barged into my study space and hijacked it for your own.” Woohyun slung his bag over his shoulder and gestured towards the door. “C’mon, I think we have a couple of hallways together before we have to split.” He was guessing based on the direction he always saw Slytherins come from to go to class.

“It’s a classroom. It’s hardly your property,” Sunggyu sniped back, following Woohyun out of the classroom anyway. “And we shouldn’t talk anymore anyway; it’s past curfew and if we’re loud we might get caught.”

Woohyun snorted, “Not going to work. It’s so early now we can just say we got up to study at this point. Now, what were you doing on the day of the Quidditch match?”

“At five in the morning?” Sunggyu’s voice was dry but he made no move to lower it significantly.

“Yes. And I’m waiting.”

Sunggyu sighed, exasperated and somewhat fond all at once. Woohyun’s heart gave a little jolt. Could he really be endearing so quickly, especially to someone who had called him _the loudest, most obnoxious_ not too long ago?

Sunggyu’s voice was fast and quiet as he muttered, “Iwashelpingmyfriendstalkhisboytoy.”

“What?” Woohyun’s mind went blank as he tried to understand. “You… were helping your friend talk to his… what?”

“I said _stalk_ ,” Sunggyu replied indignantly and then turned red as he realised that probably wasn’t better. “I mean, I wasn’t actually stalking; I was just trying to see him a bit.”

“Did you say _boytoy_?” Woohyun was gaping now.

Sunggyu shrugged. “There’s no other word for it. Hoya – he’s a Hufflepuff in your year, I think – follows Sungjong around all day making mooneyes and drooling and Sungjong secretly likes it but he won’t lose his image for it and I owed him a favour so he cashed it in. There’s no other way I’d be helping a _third year_. He just wanted me to see if I could figure out his shoe size. I think Jjong’s trying to buy him something? Which is weird because honestly, Sungjong never buys anything if he can help it; I’ve lost track of the number of times he’s managed to rope me into paying for something he wants.”

“That sounds incredibly creepy,” Woohyun couldn’t help saying slowly. “And Hoya wasn’t even knocked out that day.” Woohyun actually knew Hoya and was on pretty good terms with him – they had classes together quite often and sat together in Muggle Studies pretty regularly.

“Well, I _realised_ that. I wasn’t about to go stand right next to him at a Quidditch match. I was… performing surveillance.”

Woohyun laughed out loud. “Oh my god, you’re a huge dork, did you know that?”

Sunggyu shrugged. “When Sungjong wants you to do something, you do it and you don’t question it. Some people say Malfoy is the king of Slytherin but honestly; he’s got nothing on Lee Sungjong. Malfoy’s a spoiled brat and a complete idiot in comparison. The only thing he has going for him is his father.” They turned a corner together and Sunggyu moved to turn left, “This is where I split. Good luck with your exam later today and don’t kill Harry Potter because of it; get some sleep.”

A tease about not being his was on the tip of Woohyun’s tongue, but Sunggyu was already heading away and it died in his throat. Instead, Woohyun just gave a polite nod that Sunggyu had no way of seeing and kept walking in the direction of his tower. If he was lucky, he could get three or four hours of sleep before he had to take his exam. Fucking Harry Potter.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Woohyun didn’t see Sunggyu anymore that day; he was in a different room for his exam seeing as they were in different years and if he scanned the Slytherin table a couple of times more than usual while he was in the great hall for dinner, no one commented on it. And then it was time to go home for the summer and Woohyun firmly put Sunggyu out of his mind, figuring that at this point it just wasn’t relevant. Maybe the next school year would be more normal.

Of course, it should’ve been a sign to Woohyun that now that Harry Potter was at Hogwarts, nothing would be normal again. If he thought that the kid had gotten rid of all his wild days as a first year, he was very wrong indeed. Woohyun was happy enough to join in the festivities of Harry Potter and the Weasley kid brother flying a car to school on the first night but pretty soon, O.W.L. work was piling on at a ridiculous rate and even Sungyeol found time to sit down with Woohyun to actually study. Thankfully, Harry had been mostly quiet, or his shenanigans at least hadn’t floated up to the upperclassmen, so Woohyun could study in peace. It was a small comfort considering they had gotten Gilderoy Lockhart as their DADA teacher and it would be a true miracle if he managed to scrape even an Acceptable in the O.W.L. exam.

“I literally cannot believe this idiot,” Woohyun couldn’t help muttering in the library one day, throwing down his quill in disgust. Somebody behind him made an exasperated shushing noise and Woohyun scowled at his textbook. “Sorry,” he whispered, not feeling particularly sorry at all.

“You sound upset,” the person behind Woohyun sounded amused now and Woohyun turned around to see Sunggyu sitting there.

“It’s you,” he managed to say rather dumbly. For some reason, Woohyun hadn’t really expected to run into the Slytherin again which wasn’t entirely unreasonable – Hogwarts was huge. If you were in different years and different houses, the probability of you meeting was low.

“Yes. Can I join you?” Without waiting for an answer and to Woohyun’s surprise, Sunggyu moved all of his books over to the empty space at Woohyun’s table. “What are you upset about?” Sunggyu asked, like this was a perfectly normal thing to do.

Which, Woohyun hastily reminded himself, it was. People often studied with friends and acquaintances from other houses in the library. Ignoring, of course, that Sunggyu and him shared zero classes together. “I’m trying to do the reading for DADA and it’s killing me,” he said quickly, driving whatever other thoughts out of his mind,  
“Never thought I’d say I missed Quirrell but at least his texts weren’t blatant ego inflators. Oh look, another thing to blame Harry Potter for – if he hadn’t killed the damn Professor maybe we wouldn’t have this fucking fake.” Admittedly those were just rumours, but they had a habit of spreading throughout Hogwarts and becoming common lore.

Sunggyu scowled, “I don’t know why people keep calling him that. He’s accomplished a great deal. Besides, Lockhart being so _insufferable_ , as you say, is probably Potter’s fault too. The daily prophet spread this summer probably did wonders to his ego.” There was a slight patch of red forming on his cheeks.

Woohyun’s jaw dropped and though he would be sure to repeat the complaint about Lockhart being Harry’s fault to Sungyeol in their future ribbing, he ignored the second bit of what Sunggyu said and focused on the first. “Are you serious right now? _He’s accomplished a great deal_? You have a crush on him!”

“No! I just think that even if his lessons aren’t … ah. Very interesting. Or practical. That doesn’t mean that we can’t learn plenty from his texts and lectures if we pay attention.” Sunggyu was looking very flustered.

Woohyun grinned and whispered back, “Sure. I’m absolutely positive that’s what you’re paying attention to.”

Sunggyu flushed. “Stop. You’re showing very little respect to your elders.”

“You’re one of those people, are you?” Woohyun was suddenly beyond amused and there was a bit of a jolt in his stomach as he belatedly realised Sunggyu might not be entirely straight if he had a crush on their golden-haired perfect-smiled professor. “When you’re old, you’re going to look exactly the same and lecture all the young’uns about respect and talk about your own accomplishments ‘back in the day’. Oh wait. You probably already do that.”

Sunggyu laughed, “Shhhh. We’re in the library.” There was a pause as Sunggyu’s tiny eyes glinted in amusement. “Young’un.”

There was a scuffle as Woohyun swatted him as quietly as he could, trying not to laugh out loud as Madame Pince was walking by and shot them both a suspicious look. Woohyun smiled innocently and quickly bent back over his textbook, in a much better mood than when he started.

After that, meeting in the library became a normal occurrence for Woohyun and Sunggyu. Ostensibly, neither of them could stand their common rooms seeing as it was standardised testing year for both of them. (“I guess it’s better to work with you since I _know_ you’ll be quiet, unlike the fuckers in my house.” “Hey, you can’t talk. I have the _Weasley twins_.” “Yeah, well, _Draco Malfoy_ is in my house so who really loses.” “I do. I have _Harry fucking Potter_. Do you have any idea the drama that surrounds him?”) In reality, they just enjoyed each other’s company, growing more and more comfortable with each other through talking, hanging out, and laughing about the budding relationship between Hoya and Sungjong.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Halloween found Woohyun sitting with Sungyeol at the Gryffindor table, enjoying the food. With half a leg of chicken in his mouth and a cup of coffee (“There’s never a ‘right’ time for coffee. All times are right.”), Sungyeol was fully enjoying his “designated night off from those damn exams that are ages away anyway”.

Woohyun looked over at his friend with ill-disguised amusement, “That’s gross, you know that? You could give Ron Weasley competition for most disgusting eater.”

Taking another gulp of coffee, Sungyeol shook his head, “The kid’s got nothing on me. I’ve been eating Hogwarts dry since long before he got here.” Glancing up and down the table, Sungyeol frowned and added, “Speaking of, where is he? Not really one to miss the Halloween feast, is he? I wouldn’t have expected it.”

Woohyun looked too and shrugged. “Can’t find his friends either. That’s a little strange. Think they could’ve landed in detention or something? Remember the fiasco last year with the whole sneaking around at midnight thing? Wouldn’t put it past them.” His voice was absentminded as he took the opportunity of scanning the Gryffindor table to also scan the Slytherin one. Sunggyu caught his eye and raised his left eyebrow in question. Woohyun grinned in response and gave a flushed little nod.

Sungyeol shrugged, oblivious and blinded by the coffee. “Yeah, maybe.” He didn’t particularly care either way about Harry Potter and his friends but was used to indulging Woohyun in his continuous efforts to discredit him. “Woohyun! Pumpkin pie!”

After an admittedly very satisfying slice of pumpkin pie, Woohyun told Sungyeol to go on ahead and tried to linger behind the crowd as they all headed out of the great hall. Sure enough, he hadn’t misread Sunggyu, who was likewise lingering behind the lot of fellow students.

“Underclassmen are entirely too excitable,” Sunggyu said dryly as a first year almost tripped over his feet pushing ahead.

“Okay grandpa,” Woohyun teased. He smiled at Sunggyu, “Happy Halloween.”

“You too. Got anything planned for tonight?”

“There’ll probably be some sort of shenanigans going on in the common room but honestly, I’m just going to take a day off from studying. I feel like I’ve barely seen my housemates all year – we’ve all just been so busy. How about you?”

“Yeah, probably the same. I could definitely use a break – examinations aren’t until May anyway.”

Woohyun was too busy looking at Sunggyu (“I was _not_ being obvious,” Woohyun was found saying crossly to Hoya later, “What are you talking about. And anyway, what were you doing spying on me. Besides, you can hardly talk; Sunggyu says you drool after his friend Sungjong all the time. What. Why do you look so unembarrassed; are you even normal?”) and almost ran into a sixth year in front of him as the whole corridor was blocked up. There was a hushed silence up front and then someone was yelling. Woohyun craned his neck, trying to see what was happening. “What on earth…?”

Sunggyu grabbed his arm (Woohyun was steadfastly ignoring the tingling in his arm) and pulled him through the crowd to just behind a couple of third years so they could see what was going on.

“Oh my god. Mrs. Norris,” Woohyun breathed, eyes widening in shock.

“Look, it’s the brats from your house,” Sunggyu whispered, his voice steady even as his hands shook.

Sure enough, Woohyun could see Harry Potter and his friends standing in a criminally suspicious spot, almost right under where Mrs. Norris was hanging by her tail. “They weren’t at dinner,” Woohyun murmured uneasily, remembering the conversation with Sungyeol from earlier that night. Sunggyu grunted in response and Woohyun glanced sharply at him. Sunggyu turned his head slightly and Woohyun understood it to mean that he wasn’t going to blab. Woohyun and Sunggyu moved silently aside as Harry Potter, his friends, Filch, and all the other professors were led away by Dumbledore.

There was a lot of commotion as Woohyun and Sunggyu were swept up in the stream of students and redirected towards their respective common rooms now that the Gryffindor kids were gone. They were having a furiously whispered conversation but no one paid any notice to it – everyone else was doing the same thing. The entire student body was buzzing with some combination of anxiety and anticipation.

“Did you hear what Malfoy was yelling?”

“No, I didn’t even know it was Malfoy yelling. Did you see the writing on the wall? It looked like…” Woohyun’s voice trailed off uneasily, unwilling to say it.

Sunggyu had no such qualms. “Blood.” His voice was flat. “Enemies of the heir, beware. Malfoy was yelling about Mudbloods.” Woohyun visibly flinched. “Sorry for the slur, I forget not everyone is in Slytherin sometimes. It’s a survival technique in my house. What’s your blood status?”

Woohyun wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Mostly, he just felt confused and a little afraid and he knew he didn’t like how Sunggyu would say the word so matter-of-factly like there wasn’t even any consideration there. He felt prickly, and not in a good way. “What does it matter?”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “ _I_ don’t care. But if this isn’t some prank, the heir or whatever it is _will_ care. I just want to know if I’m expecting you to fall dead or something.”

Warmth bubbled from within Woohyun but he fought it down. Mudblood wasn’t something people just said, especially since the war had been over for over a decade now. (Then again, a voice whispered in his head, do you know anything about Slytherins? The houses were arguably _more_ divided since the war.) Pushing his conflicting feelings aside, Woohyun shook his head. “Naw, I’m half-blood. You’re a pureblood I imagine?”

Sunggyu nodded, “Not one of the old British lines, obviously; my family immigrated over a couple generations back. But yeah, I’m pureblood. Guess we’ll both be hoping whoever’s behind this isn’t also a xenophobic arsehole?”

Woohyun forced out a laugh. All the cheer from earlier that night had disappeared with the image of Mrs. Norris hanging from the torch under those words. Bidding Sunggyu goodnight, Woohyun trailed behind the rest of the Gryffindors back to the common room. Bypassing the fervent conversations that had sprung up, he headed straight for the stairs to his bed and found Sungyeol waiting for him.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he wanted to talk. “It’s terrible, isn’t it? I’ve never seen anything like it. Do you know what this chamber thing is?”

Woohyun shook his head, “My dad didn’t go to school here, remember?”

“Right, right. Neither did my mum.” There was a pause. “Do you want to go downstairs? Maybe the second years will be back and can tell us what’s happening.” That was Sungyeol’s defence mechanism – keep busy. Woohyun, however, tended to want to be left alone when he was feeling like this and just shook his head.

“You go ahead, see if Potter’s friends know anything. I think I’m going to bed.”

Sungyeol nodded in understanding and headed for the door, “Goodnight, then.”

Most of the time when Woohyun joked about Harry Potter being difficult and dramatic, it wasn’t serious – it wasn’t the kid’s fault he was famous and Woohyun’s interactions with him suggested that he was a likeable kid as far as twelve year olds went. But this time it was hard to ignore that yet again, Harry Potter was in the thick of things. And the things weren’t good things.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Oh my god, I can’t believe Filch. He has seriously been in the most ridiculous moods lately,” Sungyeol announced, plopping down next to Woohyun in Charms. “He tried to give me detention because, get this, my _shoes were scruffy_. Can you believe it?”

Woohyun snorted, “He’s been off his rocker lately. I’d be relieved if I were him – honestly, on Halloween I thought the cat was dead; it’s a miracle she’s alive. Anyway, we need a third for today.” He gestured to the board where Flitwick had written preliminary guidelines for a new project. “Who do you think…?”

“Hoya! Want to join us?” Sungyeol immediately called out across the room before picking up the previous thread without pausing, “Yeah, I know right? And Sprout said that she’d be able to fix the cat as soon as the plants mature, so really, it’s probably the best-case scenario right now. At least I got out of detention but wish I hadn’t lost points for something so dumb,” he said mournfully, looking down at his (admittedly scruffy) shoes.

“How’s it going?” Hoya joined them easily, pulling up a chair. “Are you talking about Filch? He tried to tell me off because I was staring at nothing for too long in the Great Hall this morning and he thought it was unnatural or something.”

Woohyun laughed, “You’re so predictable – we all know you weren’t staring at _nothing_.”

Hoya just grinned and didn’t bother denying it. “How’s Sunggyu? Slytherins sure are _accomplished_ , huh?”

Sungyeol spluttered, “Oh my god. I don’t want to hear about your Slytherin boyfriends right now.”

Hoya, if possible, grinned even wider while Woohyun shook his head and retorted, “Not my boyfriend. Hoya’s the one who’s whipped.” Hoya just shrugged, turning towards the board supremely unconcerned with what the Gryffindors thought about his relationship.

“Think what you want. Anyway, looks like a pretty big project, that’s surprising for O.W.L. year,” Hoya observed, “But I guess it’ll be good for the exams. You guys ready to see quite a lot of each other in the coming month or so?”

“We already do, anyway,” Woohyun pointed out. Despite being in different houses, both Woohyun and Sungyeol got along extremely well with Hoya, who had a sharp sense of humour and an easy-going attitude.

The three of them had a good working dynamic as well as a good playing dynamic – charms classes passed in that good combination of fun and productive all at once and Flitwick, who had always been one of the nicer teachers, had nothing but praise for their group when checking up on their projects class to class.

They really should’ve known that good things never lasted, especially this particular year at Hogwarts.

When Woohyun walked into class on Monday morning, Hoya and Sungyeol were already sitting in their usual spot, frowns on their face and whispered conversation going on. It was the same picture at every other worktable in the classroom.

“Are you talking about Creevey?” Woohyun asked grimly.

“Yeah. I was telling Hoya that Friday the Quidditch game felt like the most important thing ever and now I don’t even give a shit that we beat Slytherin.”

“It’s put everyone on edge,” Hoya said, “Our first years are terrified one of them is going to be next and the prefects made it a rule that they all had to stick together in the hallways.”

“It’s not just that,” Sungyeol added, “Did you know some fourth year tried to sell me an amulet? He said it’d protect me from getting petrified and I’d probably need it seeing as I wasn’t a pureblood. Can you believe it? Even the Ravenclaws are being affected in the craze.”

Hoya sniggered a little, “Yeah I saw the Longbottom kid buying a purple crystal to _ward off evil_ ; apparently he’s pretty easy to fool. Don’t know what he was thinking; he’s a pureblood.”

“It’s shaping up to be a really weird year,” Woohyun said. “Filch’s cat and now a first year… and even the Quidditch game was weird, wasn’t it? I’ve never seen a bludger act like that. It’s like trouble follows Harry Potter or something. Literally, in this case.”

Sungyeol waved that comment away, “I still think the bludger was just Slytherin cheating as usual. Potter embarrassed them too much last year. I know you like to joke that everything is his fault and yeah he’s been a real annoyance sometimes but there’s no way he asked to break his arm. This was definitely Slytherin and there’s nothing strange _there_. I know you two think you know good Slytherins and maybe you’re right and they’re the exception, but let’s be real – the house as a whole is suspicious.”

“I don’t know,” Hoya said, “I’m pretty sure Hooch would’ve noticed tampering.”

“Yeah, and they’ve all got a bunch of spells on them originally and I’m sure it’d take some pretty advanced magic to make it follow Potter around the way it did,” Woohyun pointed out.

“Well, like the Weasley twins pointed out in the common room: you never know what Slytherins are teaching their kids,” Sungyeol said.

“Creevey though… there’s no way that’s the work of a student unless they’re teaching seriously dark magic. And I don’t think they would, that’s been too risky since the war. I asked Sunggyu and he said there’s nothing in the N.E.W.T curriculum that would even accomplish anything near petrification.”

“Who else could it be, though? There’s no way it’s a _professor_ , they’ve all been teaching at Hogwarts forever,” Sungyeol replied, “Except Lockhart.” All three of them sniggered.

“Now boys,” Flitwick squeaked from behind them, interrupting their amusement at the thought of Lockhart managing to accomplish anything on this scale. “I know it’s been an eventful weekend but we need to carry on! How’s your project coming?”

-:-:-:-:-:-

December only got more eventful. Woohyun and Sunggyu continued to meet in the library but per Sunggyu’s request (demand), he had started to bring Sungyeol along. (“It’s not going to attack _me_ , I have a green tie. But you’re a Gryffindor and even if you’re not a… muggleborn, you’re in danger. Don’t walk alone.”)

It was probably a good precaution seeing as a Hufflepuff second year was petrified soon after in one of the corridors right nearby to the library along with the Gryffindor ghost.

“You were right,” Woohyun said with none of his usual cheer. “I hope Hoya’s okay; I know he was a second year but the Hufflepuffs seem real tight.”

Even Sunggyu looked pale, “Yeah. They definitely are. Dongwoo said they’ve set up a partner rule, kind of like what I’m making you guys do for the library walk.”

Sungyeol, who while had been sceptical at first, had quickly grown to if not like, at least respect, Sunggyu, looked slightly concerned and asked, “Maybe you should walk with someone, too? I know you’re a pureblood but I mean… whoever it was, they managed to attack a _ghost_.”

“Whoever it was?” Sunggyu repeated, his eyebrows rising. “Did you here about what happened this weekend? At the duelling club?”

“Yeah, we heard but we didn’t go. Did you?” At Sunggyu’s headshake, Woohyun continued, “But I don’t think it’s Harry Potter – it really just doesn’t make sense and honestly, he’s a second year. I’ve seen him struggle with basic transfiguration in the common room. I think people are just desperate to find someone to blame.” Woohyun would still find himself pinning all the drama on Harry Potter as a joke but it was slightly disturbing at how much of the school would seriously think a second year would be capable of stuff like this.

Sunggyu nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah. It went against all my instincts to think it was Potter too; Sungjong flat out called me an idiot. But there are zero other leads and it is strange to hear of a parselmouth in this day and age.” Shaking his confusion off, he went back to answer Sungyeol’s other question, “Anyway, no. I can walk alone. It really doesn’t matter about the ghost; blood purists don’t care about nonhumans either. Magical creatures are definitely not even near the same category as a pureblood Slytherin. I’ll be fine.”

Woohyun reflected pessimistically that he was probably right. A Gryffindor half-blood though, something both he and Sungyeol were, was probably about as safe as a Hufflepuff muggleborn and everyone had seen how safe that was. It didn’t even sound patronising anymore the way Sunggyu insisted they walked together. It honestly just sounded practical and, Woohyun flushed with warmth, like he cared.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Going home for the Christmas holidays was a thankful relief from the anxiety permeating the halls of school. The only negative was not being able to see Sunggyu in the library like normal, but to Woohyun’s (happy) surprise, Sunggyu was returning his letters with an exciting promptness. Sungyeol lived nearby so Woohyun saw him fairly often, which was a blessing because Sungyeol was terrible at replying letters and if they hadn’t lived so close, Woohyun probably wouldn’t have heard from him until they got back in January.

Woohyun and Sungyeol returned to the castle with an almost nervous anticipation churning within them. It was like the entire school was holding its breath and chanting silently _it’s only a matter of time_. But a week went by without any attacks, and then another week, and then another. As January flew by with no news, things began to relax and the two fifth years began to throw themselves back into O.W.L. review, Woohyun finding time to ditch Sungyeol for Sunggyu in the library and Sungyeol would roll his eyes and wave his arm, one end of his quill absently in his mouth.

With the start of February, it almost felt like everything was returning to normal and it’d be a typical year after all at Hogwarts. That is, until Valentine’s Day happened. Woohyun and Sunggyu had made plans to hang out in the library later (as usual) and Woohyun wasn’t even sure what to think of it – had Sunggyu even realised it was Valentine’s day? He was trying to keep low-key expectations; they definitely weren’t dating or anything.

Still, Woohyun had taken a little longer getting dressed that morning and Sungyeol had quietly snickered from his bed but had politely not said anything, even if he did keep shooting smirks. The minute the two of them walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, however, Woohyun regretted every thought he had ever spared the holiday.

Sungyeol, gaping next to him, said weakly, “We took a wrong turn, didn’t we?” There was a pause as they both tried to take the sight in. “… There’s heart-shaped confetti falling into your hair,” Sungyeol couldn’t help pointing out, stifling a giggle.

Woohyun scowled and swiped at his hair, “It’s in yours, too. I can’t believe this… are those _flowers_ on the walls? They’re enormous. This is ridiculous. Who would…” Woohyun’s eyes suddenly caught Professor Lockhart waving his arms and then dramatically rolled them as Sungyeol pulled him out of the confetti and towards the Gryffindor table, “Why did I even ask?”

“Can you believe _forty-six_ people sent him a valentine?” Sungyeol was shaking his head in disbelief after having been forced to listen to Lockhart’s Valentine’s day announcement, “Honestly, how are people so blind?”

Woohyun’s eyes immediately flicked towards Sunggyu, who was eating at the Slytherin table, his back to them, and remembered their first conversation about Lockhart and couldn’t help laughing a bit, “Well, I guess some people think he’s good looking or something.”

“If Sunggyu sent him a Valentine, I forbid you from being his friend anymore,” Sungyeol replied dryly, having followed to where Woohyun’s eyes went.

Shaking his head, Woohyun said, “Nah, he wouldn’t. I don’t think he’s the type.”

Sungyeol teased, “Maybe he didn’t because he was too busy making you one.” Woohyun’s stomach just about dropped out of him as he shook his head quickly.

“No. Definitely not.” And then he turned so deliberately towards his eggs that Sungyeol shrugged and dropped it.

Sungyeol, however, couldn’t seem to stop himself from help adding, “As long as he didn’t send you a fucking singing valentine. I feel bad for whoever thinks _that’s_ a good idea.”

Woohyun snorted.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The rest of the day went typically enough; other than the occasional dodging of valentines dwarves, Woohyun’s classes went on without disruption and pretty soon, he was finishing up dinner and heading to the library. Finding a table, he spread his books out so no one would join him before Sunggyu arrived and buckled down to start studying, already driving out the idea that Valentine’s Day even existed from his mind.

“Hey,” Sunggyu whispered, dropping down his bag on the table and pushing some of Woohyun’s notes aside, “Sorry I’m late – had to run back to my common room after dinner to grab a textbook.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Woohyun smiled, stacking some more of his books to clear out some more space.

Sunggyu dropped down into a seat and grinned, “Have you been back to your common room yet? Malfoy won’t shut up about what happened today and if I pegged your Weasley twins correctly, I bet they’re singing right now, too. It’s a good thing we’re studying here today.”

“No, I came straight from dinner. What happened?” He asked, although he had a pretty good idea it had to do with the singing dwarves and if both houses were laughing about it, it must be quite funny.

“Someone sent Potter a singing valentine and it was _awful_. There was the line: his eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad.”

Despite them being in the library, Woohyun couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that escaped him. “Oh my god. I bet Sungyeol would’ve _paid_ to hear that. Any idea who?”

Sunggyu shook his head, “Nah. I wasn’t there either and you know Malfoy; all he cares about is talking about Potter. Probably views whoever it was with jealousy.”

Woohyun actually did laugh at that and had to smile apologetically at some Hufflepuff girls who shot him a dirty look from three tables over. “Let’s be real though,” he whispered, grinning and leaning forwards on the table, “Anything you came up with would probably be a million times worse. Did you send one to Lockhart?”

Sunggyu spluttered. “No! I don’t _like_ him; I just told you that I thought the accomplishments described in his books were impressive. Plus, I believe I’ve come around… a _bit_ to your way of thinking. I’ve been, shall we say, disillusioned.”

“Sure,” Woohyun deadpanned, but his stomach was fluttering in relief, “I’m sure that’s completely true.”

“Shut up or I won’t give you this,” Sunggyu retorted, pulling out a small rectangle.

Woohyun immediately shut up and looked at Sunggyu, holding his breath and reaching for the wrapped package. Sunggyu immediately flushed red and added defensively, “Don’t look at me like that, it’s not anything big. It’s just some chocolate bars.”

“Oh,” Woohyun replied, deflating at Sunggyu’s hasty tone, “Yeah. Of course. Thanks.” Totally casual, just a gift between friends, of course. He peeled open the paper to find Honeydukes chocolate and smiled half-heartedly, “Want to share?”

Sunggyu shook his head, looking as awkward as Woohyun felt, “Probably not a good idea in the library; we’ll get kicked out.”

“Right,” Woohyun nodded, folding the paper back over again and carefully placing it on top of his pile of notes. “So, um. Thanks.”

Sunggyu was tapping his quill and looking anywhere but Woohyun before he finally seems to take a deep breath and say with faked grumpiness, “You should be appreciative; I went out in the cold to get you that and they’re clearly the best flavours – unless you’re a plebeian and like the strawberry kind in which case we can’t be friends. That’s gross.”

Woohyun immediately felt warmth flood him as he finally took the chocolate for what it was and smiled, “Of course not. Everyone knows milk is the best flavour. I’m eternally grateful for your sacrifice.”

Later that night, Woohyun didn’t drop his bag on the floor as he usually did and instead, placed it gently on his bed, removed a wrapped package carefully to place on his bedside table, before kicking his bag onto the floor and flopping onto his bed to giggle madly. Sungyeol, reading on his own bed, watched the exchange, rolled his eyes, and then helped himself to Honeydukes chocolate.

His expression immediately changed to one of disgust as he shot at Woohyun sourly, “Who doesn’t give out strawberry chocolate for Valentine’s Day? The whole holiday is about _red_. This is disgusting.”

 -:-:-:-:-:-

Woohyun and Sungyeol sat in the corner of their common room in stunned silence as Professor McGonnagall read out the rules and then ended with the grim announcement that Hogwarts would likely have to be closed if no one came forward with more information before leaving. “Closed?” Woohyun whispered, shocked.

“I mean, it makes sense,” Sungyeol said, rubbing his eyes and looking exhausted. “This is terrible. Granger is one of ours and she’s also a crazy smart muggleborn so it’s not too surprising she was targeted. But Clearwater’s a prefect and I think she’s a half-blood. And to think we thought travelling in pairs would protect us.”

“I guess this at least scratches off any possibility of it being Harry Potter,” Woohyun said hollowly, even though Sungyeol had not once seriously accused the second year the way the rest of the school had. He said it more to have something to say than for it to have any real meaning.

“That’s two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw, and one Hufflepuff.” One of the fourth years was making an impassioned speech on the other end of the room and both Sungyeol and Woohyun turned to listen as he continued, “Haven’t any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn’t it obvious all this stuff’s coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin – why don’t they chuck all the Slytherins out?”

A lot of people were nodding and quite a few were clapping. Woohyun’s stomach dropped as he pictured Sunggyu. Sungyeol cast a concerned look towards his best friend and then shook his head in disgust, “The kid’s an idiot; I mean, he’s friends with Fred and George. Wasn’t everyone saying before holidays that it was _obvious_ it was Harry Potter? None of this is that simple.”

Woohyun laughed weakly, “Yeah. None of this makes any sense.”

Sungyeol tried to make a joke, “After holidays and things calmed down, professors have been drilling down on us because of O.W.L.s, but I bet we won’t get that much pressure anymore.”

Shaking his head, Woohyun pointed out, “I’d rather have the normal stress, honestly.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

It only got worse.

“What do you mean they arrested Hagrid?” Sungyeol was demanding, eyes wide in shock.

“Forget about Hagrid,” Woohyun snapped, feeling completely empty and lost, “What do you mean _Dumbledore_ ’s gone?”

The first year looked overwhelmed, cowering beneath their glares of fear. Woohyun and Sungyeol had all but bodily stopped him in the hallway abruptly when they’d overheard him whispering nervously to someone else in his year as the first years jostled past the fifth years in the hallway while everyone was being escorted to class. “I… don’t know. I just heard some people talking about it at breakfast. Can I go to class now?”

Woohyun waved him off to run off and catch up with the rest of his year while Woohyun and Sungyeol followed the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors towards charms, squeezing past the hoards of students going in other directions. With the supervised transition periods, the hallways had gotten a lot more crowded as everyone walked together.

Plopping into their usual seats, Woohyun whispered to Hoya as Flitwick started to go through attendance, “Did you hear about Hagrid and Dumbledore?”

Hoya only nodded grimly before calling out a _here_ to their professor.

“It really does seem like the school might close,” Woohyun continued hollowly. “I know McGonagall already warned us of that but somehow it didn’t really seem real until Dumbledore got taken.”

“He wasn’t taken,” Sungyeol said angrily, jabbing at the pillow he was supposed to be banishing, “He was _suspended_ by the board. I’m telling you, there’s no way Lucius Malfoy wasn’t behind this.”

“Did you ask Sunggyu if the Slytherins think that too?” Hoya asked, staring resolutely at his own pillow.

Woohyun shook his head in frustration. “No, but Malfoy’s on the school board and we know how much influence he wields. I’d confirm with Sunggyu to be sure but it’s impossible to see him now that we have such a strict curfew.” Hoya flinched and Woohyun immediately felt bad. Sungjong was also a Slytherin – if Woohyun was having a hard time seeing a seventh year in a different house, there was almost no way Hoya had managed to see Sungjong for any amount of time.

Sungyeol, too, picked up on the melancholy and tried to tease cheerily, “It’s not like you don’t write him five million letters a day. Ask him like that.”

“It’s not the same,” Woohyun replied moodily, despite them having done that all through winter break and it having been fine. He just didn’t want to be cheered up; everything felt impossibly grim.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Last couple days of classes before exams, you ready?” Sungyeol asked, bouncing with nervous energy as he slipped into the seat next to Woohyun for breakfast.

Woohyun grunted in reply, his eyes still flying over his transfiguration notecards. Up and down the Gryffindor table and in fact, throughout the great hall, fifth and seven years looked much the same – a combination of unbelievably stressed, nerve-wracking anxiety, with a current of underlying fear that seemed to permeate the entire school. Ernie Macmillan, sitting two tables over, also had his head stuck in a textbook but the rest of the school seemed to have forgotten exams existed.

Honestly, Woohyun couldn’t blame them. He had almost forgotten himself and had been frantically cramming the past week once McGonagall had reminded them that while the O.W.L. examiners were not going to stay in the castle this year due to _extraneous circumstances_ (read: the chamber of secrets), they would still be floo-ing over this week to administer the exams.

“I honestly don’t remember any of this— my brain can’t seem to focus on anything lately,” Sungyeol kept talking nervously, his hands fiddling with his fork as he kept glancing up at the head table where Dumbledore’s chair remained empty.

“How long do you have to register your animagus form?” Woohyun asked frantically, flipping through his notes.

Sungyeol wrinkled his nose and shook his head, “No idea. Wasn’t that third year material? I don’t even remember material from yesterday. Hey, can I see your textbook?”

Woohyun nodded, shoving the book towards Sungyeol as his eyes continued to fly over his notecards and groaning, “I don’t think I wrote it down, I’m going to have to go through a million different pages of notes before I find it, it was from _years_ ago – ”

Professor McGonagall interrupted his frantic hisses to Sungyeol with an announcement, “I have good news.”

“Thank Merlin,” Sungyeol replied, ignoring everything Woohyun had been saying and abandoning the textbook, “It’s about time.” As people started to yell at her, Sungyeol’s eyes narrowed and he muttered to Woohyun, “Wish everyone would shut up.”

“Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit.”

Woohyun let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding and then grinned shakily at Sungyeol. Scanning the cheering great hall, Woohyun’s eyes found Sunggyu’s, who was sitting at his decidedly not-cheering Slytherin table, but met Woohyun’s eyes anyway, gave a small smile, and lifted his glass of orange juice towards him. Woohyun beamed and then cheerily turned to pull Sungyeol out of their seats, shoving his parchments back into his bag, “This is such great news, we’re totally going to ace exams. Let’s go to class.”

Mid-morning found the two Gryffindors in the common room for their free period. Woohyun’s focus wasn’t much better than it had been earlier at breakfast but at least instead of painful anxiety clutching at his chest, there was a buzz of excited anticipation flowing through him. Tomorrow, this would all be over hopefully and then exams would happen and there would be another long summer ahead. There was a twinge as he remembered Sunggyu would not be coming back next year but there was no point to think of that now.

Shoving his notes at Sungyeol, Woohyun said, “Quiz me. Especially on the stuff from last year; I don’t really think we got a chance to review it in class with – ”

“All students to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please.”

McGonagall’s voice was echoing through the entire castle, magically magnified. Woohyun and Sungyeol gaped at each other. There was no denying that, as calm as her voice was, there was fear pulsing through the school. The common room began to flood as the younger Gryffindors returned, everyone demanding to know what had happened and if anyone had heard anything.

“So it ends,” Lavender Brown could be heard saying dramatically. Sungyeol dropped his head onto his hands, the transfiguration notes forgotten.

Woohyun couldn’t help but weakly notice that Harry Potter and his redheaded Weasley friend wasn’t in the common room with everyone else. _He really is always in the thick of things_ , Woohyun supposed.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It was astounding, Woohyun thought to himself, how everything worked out in the end. Not only had they figured out who was behind it, Harry Potter and his friends had even managed to kill the monster and save the youngest Weasley girl.

“Sometimes it’s not so bad to have him around, huh,” Sungyeol teased, “Even if he did cause you to miss an exam last year.”

“He’s still causing me to miss my exams this year,” Woohyun retorted, trying to sound disgruntled but utterly failing as a grin spread across his face with the appearance of Hagrid. Hagrid was heading to greet (and probably thank) the aforementioned second years, so Woohyun let himself tune out Sungyeol and scan the Slytherin table. Finally, they could leave the Great Hall without a professor herding them like a flock of sheep.

“I guess we have the worst luck with exams, huh?” It seemed like Sunggyu had the same idea as he was approaching the Gryffindor table in the dorkiest striped pyjamas Woohyun had ever seen with a sheepishly amused smile on his face. The two of them met halfway between their tables, in a thick crowd of cheering students. “But at least we can hang out at the ministry when they make us take them over the summer.”

The chaos around them intensified as it was announced that Gryffindor won the house cup. Sungyeol was gesturing wildly from the Gryffindor table, conjuring red and gold streamers with his wand (he could be surprisingly good at magic when the cause was worthy), yelling at Woohyun to get his arse over already. Woohyun ignored him completely in favour of grinning ruefully at Sunggyu and saying, “What a year for the chamber of secrets to open, huh? It couldn’t have been a year when we didn’t have standardised testing and could have cancelled exams like everyone else?”

Sunggyu laughed, “Well. At least my graduation will be unique.”

“If you weren’t graduating this year, I’d suggest we make it a tradition to stay up all night at the end of the year,” Woohyun shot back, grinning cheekily. “We did the same last year, remember? What a great way to meet. You liked me instantly, you know. That’s why we’ve seen each other so much this year; you’ve practically been stalking me.”

“Oh, shut up, you. Come give me a hug.” Woohyun practically threw himself into Sunggyu’s open arms and the two of them were caught up in the screaming excitement as people around them cheered, hugged, and screamed. “I’m glad you’re safe,” Sunggyu was saying quietly.

“Me too.”

It went unsaid that it didn’t particularly matter if they didn’t run into each other at the ministry or that Sunggyu wasn’t going to be back next year; they’d make it work.

-:-:-:-:-:-

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for an exchange where my recipient asked for Woogyu at Hogwarts.


End file.
